Coast to coast

New job tomorrow

2007-03-04T15:52:00.000-08:00

Shoot, I just about never post here anymore huh? Just a quick update to any that still check up here, I'm going to be starting my new job as an institutional bond trader tomorrow. I'll try my best to continue updating.

My new baby

2006-10-20T00:51:00.000-07:00

Leaks a bit of oil but she loves me nonetheless...

Blogging

2006-10-02T01:08:00.000-07:00

It's fallen by the wayside with the other things going on in my life. I might continue later on as I do get more time but there are priorities...

I just can't stop laughing

2006-07-17T15:55:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlM-EtZDrcU

I love Family Guy.

The Note

2006-07-05T00:26:00.000-07:00

Recently, I've been working on a short film with my friends Bryan (Hollywood name: "Aiden Dax") and my roommate Rishi (Hollywood name: "Richie Kay") called The Note. It will be a romantic comedy about a hotel clerk who possibly finds new meaning in life when a beautiful guest checks in. We are in the process of casting for the film on nowcasting.com (the link may not work), and have had dozens of applications already. I'm quite excited about the project (I'm an actual Hollywood producer, and will get my own entry on ImDB!) and will definitely post links when we do complete the project. For this project I will be the director of photography - AKA cinematographer - and will be helping with production elements as well.

In case you were wondering, no I do not have a Hollywood name. I think Tao is a great name as it is.

Low energy levels

2006-06-05T23:30:00.000-07:00

I feel that the level of posting in my blog is a fair guide to my general energy level. Yeah, low. Creative energy, joie de vivre, Chi - I'm missing whatever it is that drives talent and focuses the mind. It hit a low just before my trip to Europe, and I hope that I can pick up a new creative lease on life in the following weeks. When I step back and take a look at what my self-publishing work could be, the one thing I want to avoid is the kind of self-centered belly-button gazing that most people's blogs are. I know that having a theme is the ultimate goal, but unfortunately the easiest thing to do after clicking "sign on" is to start a stream of dear diary bullshit that would only interest a mother or a dedicated stalker. So, the new law will be themes and topics. Stream of consciousness might work for Hunter S. Thompson, but that's not how I roll, baby.

I'm gonna wake up my muse and slap that bitch into action.

Photos from Paris

2006-06-01T09:51:00.000-07:00

Back home

2006-05-30T18:24:00.000-07:00

I just got back from 12 days in Europe - Paris, Amsterdam and London. Boy is it great to be back home at last. I have plenty of photos to post, and they'll be posted shortly.

Where is my muse?

2006-05-16T10:24:00.000-07:00

At 150 posts, my blog updating has stalled. Whatever my initial motivations for writing were, they have evaporated in a cloud of ennui. This Friday, I'm off for 12 days in Europe, a part of the world that I've never been. The trip will cover Paris, London and Amsterdam - two great pillars of Europe and the New Orleans of the Old World.

I'm hoping that a good break like this will restore some of my former joie de vivre. Good humor is essential to the creative spirit. Pictures shall be forthcoming.

My space on myspace

2006-05-02T19:46:00.000-07:00

A phenomenon in its own right, myspace is part of almost everyone's lives over here. I have finally decided to join the crowd and jump on board. I've also took the opportunity to do some self portraits, for my myspace profile.

Photography is fun

2006-03-09T13:26:00.000-08:00

After borrowing a ton of lighting equipment from my friend Bryan, I did a couple of photo shoots last weekend with my friend Ivana, and I thought that the results were pretty good. She was kind enough to pass them on to friends of hers and stir me up some business. Much appreciated! Click here for more pictures.

Follow the link and read the title

2006-02-21T16:56:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry for posting this, but I absolutely loved the title of this one. Quite honestly, short of joining Al-Qaeda, nothing Paris Hilton does these days is really all that newsworthy.

The Superficial gives me an ounce of mirth daily.

Pray for Mojo

2006-02-17T09:24:00.000-08:00

I just had such a wonderful night. On the way home for dinner, I had a wave of nausea hit so bad I had to pull over by the side of the street to throw up. It was just about the first time I've ever experienced the thought "am I gonna make it?" as a driver. Good thing there were no cops around to give me a hard time - it would have a pretty interesting way to get out of being taken in for DUI: "Officer, I have the stomach flu, really!". After I got home I was essentially sleeping next to the toilet, as I spent the entire night either bringing up projectile vomit or explosive diahrrea. I did, however manage to get up at a record time this morning - 6am, a new personal record on a weekday. Anyway, here's hoping I don't infect anyone else.

PS, extra points if you can identify the source of the title.

Too cool.

2006-02-13T00:07:00.000-08:00

http://www.sketchswap.com/

You sketch something on a digital whiteboard, and the site sends it to an anonymous stranger, as well as getting one in return! How cool is that?

I didn't wear a tie today

2006-02-07T18:29:00.000-08:00

I was both busy and tired at the office today... busy from actual work, and tired from staying up way too late last night trying to learn to play a new song on my guitar - Freshmen by Verve Pipe. So, for the first time in months, I didn't wear a tie the whole day at work.

I'm such a rebel.

New Gear

2006-02-03T12:13:00.000-08:00

I'm celebrating my new lowered rent by buying a new lens for my camera. It's a Sigma 10-20 mm ultra-wide zoom lens. I'll be getting it shipped by Wednesday so hopefully I can post some photos by next weekend.

Gong xi fa tsai

2006-01-29T21:32:00.000-08:00

Hey y'all, happy Chinese new year!

Woof woof woof!

I'm moving

2006-01-17T14:25:00.000-08:00

Well, after one year of living with my current roommate, I'm moving... from West Los Angeles to Santa Monica (actually, about 3 miles closer to my office). The reasons behind the move are a little complicated, but suffice it to say, it involves a fair bit of drama in other people's lives. Since I'm not involved in said drama, I am happy to take my fortunes where fate may guide me. Last day at my current place is on Feb 4, so I have about 3 weeks left at my place.

More updates to come!

Drawrings

2006-01-02T22:21:00.000-08:00

I did some very quick sketches this weekend, thought you may enjoy. FYI, they do contain some nudity.

Happy Xmas and New Year!

2006-01-01T14:26:00.000-08:00

Blogger is mucking up my posts for some reason... new posts soon!

Ballpoint Art

2005-12-22T22:44:00.000-08:00

I found this link while browsing through the internets. I like doodling with ballpoints, but this is ridiculous.

On an unrelated note, I'm off to go snowboard at Lake Tahoe tomorrow - it'll be an 8 hour drive and we will be leaving at around midnight and driving overnight. Pictures will be forthcoming.

First. Celebrity. Ever.

2005-12-21T13:47:00.000-08:00

Well, I finally had my first celebrity sighting in Santa Monica over lunch just now. After complaining that I have been here an entire year without seeing a celebrity, I saw Damon Wayans walking down Ocean Avenue with a short accountant-looking guy.

That is all.

Deal or no deal

2005-12-19T21:10:00.000-08:00

First of all, sorry that I couldn't make any updates for the last two weeks; I had been quite tardy with these posts and haven't been able to bring myself to make a few minutes' time to type up an entry.

I was watching the new game show on NBC - "Deal or no deal," starring Howie Mandel, and the statistical nature of the game piqued my interest, and I felt compelled to comment. It was set up thusly: There are 26 identical cases, containing prizes ranging from $0.01 to $1,000,000. A contestant chooses a single case which is "their case" for the duration of the game. At various points, the contestant must eliminate a number of cases from the 26, at which point their contents are revealed. Using this information a "banker" - a producer of the show - will offer the contestant a deal where they can accept a set amount of money, or continue to select cases to remove, and revealing further information. The first few stages are marked by very low expected values of deals offered by the bank: the offer would be $12,000, where the average value of the contents of the remaining cases was well over $50,000. The pivotal moment of the show, however, was later on in the game...

The contestant was down to four cases remaining, each containing one of these sums:

$75
$300
$50,000
$500,000

A deal was offered where she could walk away with a lump sum of $130,000, or must choose one more case to open and thereby eliminate; and be offered another deal.

Given that the average or expected value of the remaining cases was
(75+300+50000+500000) / 4 = $137,593.75

This meant that the producer offered nearly even odds as a deal; the perfect gambler at this point may think that since the expected value of the remaining prize was greater than the deal offered, the contestant should decline the offer and continue to play. In fact, this was what she did, and unfortunately, she opened the $500,000 case and her expected value dropped to $16,791. Predictably, the next deal offered was for $17,000.

Quite interesting to see how people react in the face of even odds. Basic economics states that risk seekers would always choose to take the next gamble, and risk averse players would take a deal that would be slightly less than the expected value of the gamble.
How would you play?

It's been a while

2005-12-01T14:07:00.000-08:00

Two weeks, to be exact, since my last post. Not that I have been involved in some momentous undertaking, just a mountain of miscellany in the meantime. Some errata that may be of interest:

I will be coming back to Toronto from December 10th through the 18th
The CA DMV is making me go through some extreme hoops with the feds to get my car locally registered. I am considering shipping my car back to Toronto, selling it, and buying something new... I am thinking Honda S2000, or perhaps something more utilitarian like a Nissan Xterra.
I have a new goal for my online poker at PartyPoker.com - to turn my initial $50 deposit into $1000 by the end of February. After about a month and a half of consistent play, I am about 1/3 of the way there. If by some stroke of luck I manage to win a big multilevel tournament, I will buy myself a new bike.
In live competition, I'll have to start tracking win/loss. I'll probably end up withdrawing $1000 cash at the beginning of the year, and set that aside as my annual bankroll. No bankroll, no poker. I'll define good progress as doubling up the bankroll within 1 year. If God forbid I lose my entire bankroll six months into the year, I'll have to pick up a new hobby.

Till next time... May all your cards be live, and all your pots monsters.

Frank Miller's Sin City

2005-11-14T22:57:00.000-08:00

Skinny little Nancy Callahan. She grew up. She filled out.

Lately, I have not been the most up to date with the newest films. In fact, I've been so behind that I saw Frank Miller's Sin City on DVD for the first time tonight. The film struck quite a nerve on the right side of my brain with its stunning cinematography and poignant use of color. In fact, the character and set design triggered a sudden flash of memory. - several years back I had come across a single panel of Frank Miller's work - copied without reference - on the Internet, and the style piqued my interest so much that I had to break out my book for a quick sketch (captured above). I quickly went upstairs after finishing the movie and flipped through a couple of sketchbooks to find the doodle I put together. At the time I found the original, I had no idea who Frank Miller was nor had I ever read through any of his comics. Needless to say, I will go by Barnes and Noble tomorrow to check out the "graphic novel" section.

If you look closely, you'll notice that for this particular sketch, I didn't have my favorite #3B pencil available so I had to make a very rare use of a black ballpoint pen. I feel somewhat compelled to give it another go, but I think that pencil sketches don't do Frank Miller's heavy use of ink washes nearly the justice he deserves. I'll post up a finished drawing if I ever get one done with my tablet.

Another missed opportunity

2005-11-10T14:08:00.000-08:00

Remember a few posts back I had been complaining about how I was working in one of the highest celebrity per capita areas of the world and have not seen a single celebrity in nearly a year? Well, I missed another opportunity today - coming back from lunch about 3 of my co-workers all spotted Kelly Osbourne (admittedly, a b-list celebrity), while my attention was turned elsewhere.

Darn.

Disassembly

2005-11-07T23:43:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite activities as a young boy was to take things apart and to put them back together again. Worked great with LEGO, not so good with alarm clocks and worms. This week, it continues anew with my motorcycle. My list of things to do include replacing the instrument cluster and replacing the handlebar. The easy part was removing the fairing, which took me all of 2 hours to do. Unfortunately, the screw holding the bar end on the handlebar is totally stripped down, so there will be much drilling and gnashing of teeth to come later this week. I've already committed about 3 hours this past weekend installing new lights - incidentally, I spent a lot of time splicing wires together, only to find out this evening I had to cut them apart to get the fairing off. :(

There is no interesting personal anecdote here this, I just had to vent how I need to spend another fricking 2+ hours to drill the bar end off. Could be worse though, grinding my fenders on my car to make my aftermarket xenon headlamps fit took well over 10 hours total.

Back in town

2005-11-06T15:49:00.000-08:00

Hey, all my peeps down in TO, I'll be back in the hood in December! I'm arriving Saturday the 10th and leaving Sunday the 18th. The main purpose of my trip is to renew my TN visa, which hopefully will be very smooth, otherwise I will be back in town for a Very Long Time!

Cheers y'all!

Happy Halloween!

2005-10-31T11:53:00.000-08:00

No Halloween parties for me this weekend, I ended up going and playing golf instead - 18 holes at Menifee Lakes country club. :)

craigslist

2005-10-26T09:55:00.000-07:00

Oh where else could you find parts to build an evil robot out of retro Macs?

Like a furry land mine

2005-10-21T09:54:00.000-07:00

I stepped on Neko's tail accidentally yesterday, and have two well-spaced puncture wounds on my ankle reminding me why that is a bad idea.

Funny thing is, she looked up at me curiously as if nothing happened immediately afterwards. Must be a reaction thing.

Save the children

2005-10-18T15:15:00.000-07:00

I met up with my old high school friend Sunny on Friday, and he mentioned how he was sponsoring this child through World Vision. To make a long story short, I got kind of inspired and ended up doing a similar thing. I signed up to be a sponsor through the Save the Children foundation and ended up sponsoring Satya, an 11 year old boy living in Nepal. FYI, sponsorship monies go to education and health programs in the village of the sponsored child, not to a direct handout.

I figured, it's $28 a month, which is way less than what I spend on useless crap on a regular basis - there are far better places to put that money.

So, uh...

2005-10-17T10:07:00.000-07:00

How pure are you?

Tired

2005-10-14T10:52:00.000-07:00

I'm used to getting my weekly hibernation on Saturday morning by sleeping in from 1am to 1pm. However, I don't think I've had anything more than 7 hours of sleep in nearly a month. I am about to fall face first into my keyboard here at work.

Oh man, I need this weekend.

Things I now know

2005-10-10T10:20:00.000-07:00

My friends Tim and Joanna visited me from Toronto last week and we had quite a number of hijinks in Las Vegas and Southern California. I always try to turn my outings into an educational experience, so I will share here a few things I learned when I was in Vegas:

Taxicab drivers are the yellow page directory of adult entertainment. They are also very pushy salesmen.
$5.95 prime rib in Primm, Nevada is surprisingly good
In Vegas, drinks are far overpriced in some places, and far underpriced in others. There is no rhyme nor reason, except that...
If you gamble, you'll be taken care of, but...
Drinking at the poker table is not a successful winning strategy
Never say no to Vegas nightlife. We passed on lining up for Pure at Caesar's Palace, and later found out that Ashlee Simpson was celebrating her 21st birthday with her sister Jessica there.
The city may never sleep, but trying to find a real restaurant that's open at midnight on a Sunday is a challenge.

Why are men happier?

2005-09-28T13:56:00.000-07:00

I found this on a forum, it was quite funny when I read it:

========================================

Your last name stays put. The garage is all yours. Wedding plans take care
of themselves.

Chocolate is just another snack. You can be President. You can never be pregnant.

You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park. You can wear NO shirt to a water park.

Car mechanics tell you the truth. The world is your urinal: you never have to drive to another gas station restroom because this one is just too icky.

You don't have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a bolt. Same work, more pay.

Wrinkles add character. Wedding dress $5000. Tux rental-$100. People never
stare at your chest when you're talking to them. The occasional
well-rendered belch is practically expected.

New shoes don't cut, blister, or mangle your feet. One mood all the time.
Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat. You know stuff about tanks.

A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase. You can open all your own
jars. You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness. If
someone forgets to invite you, he or she can still be your friend.

Your underwear is $8.95 for a three-pack. Three pairs of shoes are more than
enough. You almost never have strap problems in public. You are unable to
see wrinkles in your clothes.

Everything on your face stays its original color. The same hairstyle lasts
for years, maybe decades. You only have to shave your face and neck.

You can play with toys all your life. Your belly usually hides your big
hips. One wallet and one pair of shoes one color for all seasons. You can
wear shorts no matter how your legs look.

You can "do" your nails with a pocket knife. You have freedom of choice
concerning growing a mustache. You can do Christmas shopping for 25
relatives on December 24 in 25 minutes.

No wonder men are happier.

Race results

2005-09-27T09:44:00.000-07:00

Event:	Nike Run Hit Wonder
Year:	2005
Bib:	606
Last name:	Chen
First name:	Tao
City:	Los Angeles
State:	CA
Overall:	2741
Chip number:
Finish time:	01:00:35
Chip time:	00:59:21

Race day

2005-09-25T00:22:00.000-07:00

I just came back from a 10K race this evening - the Nike Run Hit Wonder. I was originally introduced to the race by my roommate, who flaked out to go drinking instead. However, I was able to get one of my co-workers and some of her friends to come along, so I had some company. It was an interesting race format, with a sound stage set up and a band playing every couple of miles or so. Playing in LA were Chingy, DJ Z-Trip, Fountains of Wayne, The Donnas, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, The Aquabats, and Nina Sky. The finish was especially exciting, running into the LA coliseum with a cheering crowd and Joan Jett's band rocking out.

The run itself was something, 10 km being the longest distance I've ever run before - I've done that mileage only a couple of times solo back home in Markham under no time pressure. Racing was a different matter, however: with the massive crowd (all wearing the same lime green race jersey) both in front and behind of you; there is no place to go, and so every time you are passed it is a mesaure of defeat. It was pretty competitive though - I was staged with other 9 minute mile runners so there was only a large amount of passing at the beginning.

I'm pretty happy to post that I was able to squeeze in just under the 60-minute mark my first official 10K race, which works out to an average of a 9.6 min. mile.

Rain

2005-09-20T18:50:00.000-07:00

We had our first rainfall since March today. Everyone was late to work because nobody remembers how to drive when the streets are wet. Hilarity ensues.

Ze Internets, zey are for porn, no?

2005-09-17T22:50:00.000-07:00

Sorry, but I have to post this. This is one of the funniest flash animations I've seen in a while: The Internet is for porn.

FYI boys & grrls, It's PG-13-rated.

Check-raise

2005-09-14T23:11:00.000-07:00

I started playing poker again recently, when I found some guys at work who did a Texas hold'em no-limit game once a week or two. It's been quite invigorating, and I really look forward to playing every Tuesday or Wednesday (especially since I won big the last two weeks). Interestingly enough, as I get more into financial analytics specifically and the finance industry in general, I have come to draw some very close parallels between poker and investment management.

The truth is, speaking as someone who has completed all the CFA exams successfully, investments are institutionalized gambling on the vastest scale. People with solely a heavy economics background - as I was at one point in my life - tend to ignore or gloss over this fact, but most quantitative analysis is generally geared to justify the actions of money managers ex post, and at most control total value-at-risk ex ante, to the point that risk can actually be "controlled" (as experience shows, taming risk is no easy proposition). Many aspects of modern capital markets are zero-sum games, such as commodities and derivatives - like poker, where for every dollar winner, there must be a dollar loser. There is even a parallel to the casino's rake: broker fees and trading costs such as the bid-ask spread and cost-of-carry for deliverables. However, the most striking similarity - and here is why I have observed that every institutional money manager is an incessant gambler - is the ironclad relationship between risk and reward. Do you chase the open ended nut straight draw when your opponent simply bets the turn at 10 to 1 pot odds? How about writing a $50 million futures position on the long end of the UK treasury curve? Maybe spice it up with credit default swaps across a basket of BBB+ bonds?

Not all portfolio managers are gamblers, but of the ones that I personally have known, a disproportionate number are, either the first to put down a twenty on making the birdie putt on 18, or spending Sunday morning at the blackjack table in Vegas. Early on, I had put myself on the path to be in investment management, and as I get closer to a point where I can make the jump in my career to be so, I suppose it would be a good thing for me to figure out whether I want to be - for all intents and purposes - a professional gambler. Who knows? Maybe 15 or so years down the road I will be going all-in on the flush draw with millions of your hard-earned pension dollars.

September

2005-09-10T13:32:00.001-07:00

Sorry, I've been behind with any updates this week - it's been quite busy at work. In fact, it's a Saturday afternoon and I am back at the office trying to finish off some work. But this is how it is in September when all the clients come back from vacation.

More to come shortly...

San Diego

2005-09-04T20:43:00.000-07:00

So lazy, can't even bother to move to the bathroom.

Three weeks later, I finally post photos. This is the heighth of laziness; the downside of great weather.

Sucks to be sick

2005-08-27T21:04:00.000-07:00

It's 9pm on a Saturday night; I'm supposed to be dressing up to go to a club out by Silver Lake for a co-worker's birthday bash. Unfortunately I've been hacking up a lung and my nose is quite congested; part of the package from our trip up to Silicon valley / San Fran.

On the plus side, though, I'm playing with my new toy - A top-of-the-line Dell Axim X50v handheld PC with a bluetooth GPS unit. Frustrated with my absolute lack of directional sense (which can be fatal in the Greater Los Angeles area), I decided to get a GPS-enabled handheld using my hard-earned bonus - my firm was generous enough to award me $500 for passing my CFA.

So, instead of gettin' jiggy with the ladies, I get to spend my Saturday night trying to figure out why my Axim won't talk to my wireless router. That, and building up calluses attempting to play Hotel California.

Fun (hack cough cough spit).

Half the science, twice the religion

2005-08-25T18:18:00.000-07:00

A funny animation outlining the newest scientific "theory"... Supernatural selection!

http://www.markfiore.com/animation/super.html

Another sketch

2005-08-23T23:23:00.000-07:00

I think I did this one quite a while back. It's some musician guy from a discontinued library book I had. On a tangent - I have quite a love of discontinued book sales at the library; when I was young and my family was poor, that was how I built up my collection of "previously owned" books. In fact, I had an entire World Book encyclopedia set, except for half of C, JKL, M, and half of S. This is why I rule at Jeopardy, unless the subject happens to start with one of those letters.

Good grief

2005-08-22T17:44:00.000-07:00

They say a picture speaks a thousand words; this is what kind of day I am having:

Every one of those "follow up" emails entails 1-5 hours of work. To say that "Favorite Folders" is a misnomer would be the understatement of the century.

Driving around

2005-08-22T12:48:00.000-07:00

I've been around California again this previous weekend. I went up with my family to see an old family friend of ours up in Cupertino, which is about an hour south of San Francisco in Silicon Valley. Due to the fact that we only had the weekend, we didn't get a chance to do too much in the area - we saw the sea lions on Pier 39, and sampled some of the fine Chinese food in the area. I'll have more pics posted soon.

I'll need new business cards soon

2005-08-17T10:15:00.000-07:00

I've forgotten what spring is like. For the last four years, I've spent every spring stuck in my room, poring over arcane financial jargon, and learning investment management "the CFA way".

Well, this will be no more, because I've finally passed the last level of the exam.

I PASSED.

And that's all there is to it.

Balboa Park

2005-08-16T00:04:00.000-07:00

Balboa Park reflecting pool, San Diego

This was an awesome park, tons of museums, art galleries, and gardens all in one location. We took all day Sunday touring it. My favorite from the whole day was the Museum of Photographic Arts. A very small gallery, nonetheless, it hosted a Steve McCurry exhibit, which truly showed me the power of color photography. I think I'm going to spend some time doing some research with color theory now...

San Diego

2005-08-15T13:16:00.000-07:00

A meerkat hanging out with her baby

I was in San Diego this weekend with my mom and brother. We did the zoo and Balboa park in two days; I took quite a few photos, which I shall post on my pbase account shortly.

The Right side of the Force

2005-08-09T12:31:00.000-07:00

Are you left-brain dominant or right-brain dominant? For somebody who is swimming in technology and quantitative finance on a daily basis, I would have pegged myself as strongly left-brained, or maybe in the middle of the road. According to this test, however, I answered 15 questions that are right-brain dominant responses, and only 4 that were left.

So what are you? Comments welcome.

Mom and bro in town

2005-08-07T23:54:00.000-07:00

My mom and brother are in town for the next two weeks. This weekend, we went out to Hollywood, Beverly hills, the Getty Center, Malibu, and San Gabriel (Chinese groceries, you know). My back is killing me from all that driving.

Dropped the sucker

2005-08-01T22:20:00.000-07:00

I had a wonderful ride Sunday, out for two whole hours riding up and down the Pacific Coast Highway, followed by a blast down Topanga canyon - the Mecca of motorcyclists. Not a single incident, complete control the whole time. Then this morning, on my commute to work, I get cut off by a middle-aged woman in a BMW: I grab a handful of brake (stupid move), lock the front tire, and lay 'er down.

Total damage:

Bike:

Scuffs on muffler
Bent right handlebar (clipons)
Smashed right turn signal
Total repair costs: $50 + labor

Me:

Bruised ego
(Re)sprained wrist
Cut on left hand from picking up the shattered turn signal and flinging it
Total repair costs: $priceless.

The worst part of it? The lady actually got out of her car, asked if I was OK ("yeah I guess"), then asked if I wanted her insurance ("yes please"), got in her car, and sped off. Fucking bitch. If I wasn't checking out my bike I would have got her plate and the cops would've nailed her with hit & run.

At least my gear worked.

I wish I could art like that

2005-07-29T22:42:00.000-07:00

Working in a cubicle is pretty uninspiring. Not much to stimulate the right side of the mind. I always look at work like this with admiration and longing. Then again, the money I make from my dayjob affords me such pastimes. Sigh.

Sketch of the day

2005-07-29T22:12:00.000-07:00

I got two new sketchbooks from Blick's art store yesterday, and I'm having a blast. I have to say, out of all my hobbies, drawing is arguably the cheapest and possibly the most rewarding when good results come out. I left virtually all my art supplies in TO when I left; replenishing them took a grand total of 35 bucks. I wish photography was as cheap. :(

PS, does anyone think I should sign or digitally watermark my "work" I post on the 'net? It would suck if people stole my pics.

Gimme one reason

2005-07-28T23:40:00.000-07:00

I had an art attack, and decided to break out my Wacom tablet today. Recently I've picked up how to play Tracy Chapman's Gimme one reason on my guitar -- it's quite a nice blues progression -- so I had some subject material as a model.

My art skills still need a bit of work, though. That, and I'm really clumsy with the "airbrush" tool in Photoshop.

The century post

2005-07-27T14:57:00.000-07:00

Post # 100 (huzzah!):

I really like how Kim posts some photography on a regular basis to her blog. I think I shall attempt to post weekly photos (or possibly sketches/drawings) myself. There's nothing quite like a pretty photo to spruce up a webpage.

Gremlin destroys Ninja

2005-07-26T21:33:00.000-07:00

I'm in a foul mood today, mostly because my bike died yesterday morning due to dead battery. Nothing like suiting up, putting the key in the ignition, hitting the starter button and getting "clickclickclickclickclick" I stood there like an idiot for a good 5 minutes trying different combinations of choke, clutch, fuel petcock (yes, I know - Ha Ha) settings to get the thing started.

Today, I tried charging it with a trickle charger, to no avail; instead of a feisty "beep!" from the horn, I get a sad "hooooonk". The headlight couldn't even turn on - it looks like it's time for a new battery. And we were having so much fun together, too.

Microsoft destroys Apple

2005-07-25T17:12:00.000-07:00

Virtually, at least. These days, mapping software have become quite prevalent. Take a look at an overhead view of Apple Inc.'s Cupertino headquarters, both from MSN Virtual Earth and from Google Maps. Notice that in MSN's version of reality, the only thing located on that site is bare earth.

This is why competition is a good thing.

The Draft

2005-07-22T19:25:00.000-07:00

So Anaheim won the second overall pick in the '05-'06 NHL draft. I think this year I'll finally be able to afford to watch a hockey game, seeing that around Southern California, only half the population even knows what hockey is. No matter how well the Leafs did, I don't think I could ever justify spending $100+ on crap seats.

Go Ducks! Though with the Samueli family purchase of the franchise from Disney, rumor is that they'll change the name to simply the Anaheim Ducks. I'm all for that.

Happy birthday to me.

2005-07-18T10:33:00.000-07:00

So, it's my birthday (I turn 26) today, and co-incidentally I picked up my very first motorcycle yesterday, a little 1992 Kawasaki Ninja 250R! I had a guy help me bring it back home in the back of his pickup truck, then the second I arrive, I throw my gear on and go for a ride... What a rush! I remember now why I got into the hobby in the first place; there is no comparison to anything on four wheels. When I hit 40 mph it felt comparible to going 80 in my cage (car) down a residential district. Nervous about making a fatal mistake, I was sweating through my gloves and had to keep my visor halfway open just to keep it from fogging up. Riding without insurance didn't help, either.

I have to admit to making a few newbie mistakes in my first trip around the block: I stalled it a few times from a red and almost tipped it over at a stop sign when I squeezed the front brake too hard. No harm done, however... I must say, it's not even noon yet and I'm already waiting for the work day to finish so I can go riding again.

So, that was my first ride on my first bike... Happy birthday to me!

Sure, they're cute when they're little, but...

2005-07-14T10:31:00.000-07:00

My dog Wookie got real big in my absence (I realize that the official spelling in Lucas-land is Wookiee, but like the superfluous apostrophe in "D'oh", my internal spell-check forces me to omit the extra "e"). When she was just a puppy, she looked just like a teddy bear:

Now, by some miracle of dog-evolution, she's dropped her ursine features for ones of the lupine persuasion; i.e. she looks like a small wolf. Which is fine, but now she terrifies my mother's neighbors:

Still cute, no?

What's the point really?

2005-07-13T15:19:00.000-07:00

So I was out for lunch with some of my co-workers at Souplantation today. A regular lunch destination, it's mostly vegetarian salad and soup buffet attracts some of the more attractive denizens of its Brentwood neighborhood. Ogling is usually standard between the second trip to the buffet table and dessert. Today, across from us was a 30-something lady who obviously had a LOT of work done. What was more attention-grabbing was what she was wearing - or rather not wearing. Imagine surgically "weightless" 36D's floating without a bra in a mesh white tank. OK for Maxim magazine, not OK for Souplantation; not when you can tell the color and shape of each areola. I suppose it gives her comfort to have people carry on conversations with her chest.

Doh

2005-07-12T21:45:00.000-07:00

First: I can't abide by the "official" spelling of D'oh! It just doesn't seem right, like some sort of perverse Wade-Giles romanization. Doh it is.

Second: It's impossible to find new people on a daily basis when you only spend about 20 minutes outside your office searching for food. I'm revising my goal to 4 people a week. I think that's more like it. Oh how the resolutions bend...

Talking to strangers

2005-07-10T22:42:00.000-07:00

On Friday, I was walking to my car from the local taco store when I passed by a bunch of protesters - apparently they were protesting the bombings in London. Nearby was a man with a camera with a big white lens. Obviously a photojournalist. Seeing as I was getting more into photography recently, I wanted to ask what publication he was shooting for and what type of equipment he carries, but at the last moment I decided it wasn't worth the time and I just walked on by.

As I got to my car and drove towards home I started regretting it more and more. Eventually I got to thinking how many times in my life that I've passed by fascinating discussions and meeting interesting new people. In fact, not being proactive about meeting people, and being generally antisocial is one of my biggest pet peeves with other people (it's also an unfortunate "Asian" stereotype), so it would be rather hypocritical of me to do so myself. So I made a resolution right then and there that, from now on, every day I will attempt to start up a conversation with a complete stranger. The progress is as follows:

Yesterday, the stranger was a guy at the local motorcycle shop; we discussed merits of various chain sprays, and I learned that MotoGP racing at Laguna Seca was the only race that was held in the USA.
Today, I was shooting a wedding. I think I must have met like 100 people.

Let's see if we can keep up this pace, shall we?

Back in LA

2005-07-06T10:14:00.000-07:00

A big thanks to everyone who had the time to see me on my trip back. I got tons of work to sift through, so a bigger update is to come.

Cheers!

Update - four drinks and counting

2005-06-30T20:37:00.000-07:00

... I just luuurve getting plastered on other people's tabs.

"Stuck" at LAX

2005-06-30T20:23:00.000-07:00

I'm typing this entry from a workstation (free) at the Air Canada VIP elite lounge (also free). I'm sipping on my (free) Caesar cocktail, after finishing my (free) dinner. In about two hours I'm going to be going to gate 23 where I will be boarded executive class (free) aboard a direct (free) flight to YYZ Pearson International. How did this chain of events come to be? Well, my gentle readers, the tale had unfolded thusly:
My original flight was to Leave LAX at 5:45pm and arrive at Vancouver at about 9pm. After a two hour layover, the red-eye would resume, flying to Toronto to arrive at 6:10am EST (3:10 Pacific). The flight, however, was way overbooked - the announcement came up asking for four passengers to give up their tickets for an alternate flight. I duly volunteered and was offered a $300 voucher for Air Canada, a 10:30pm direct flight, upgrade to first class, a meal voucher, and access to the VIP lounge. I feel like I just won the lottery.

Gentle readers, please excuse me if I make any typographical errors. I've had 3 drinks already and plan to make my red-eye in a rather comatose state.

Cheers,

-Tao

Back to TO

2005-06-29T23:27:00.000-07:00

I'm headed back home! I hope they don't make me turn on all my electronic toys. I'm taking the following gear with me on my flight:

Laptop (grad present for bro)
Digital voice recorder (for dad)
Camera
Game Boy (for two hour layover in Vancouver)
iPod
Cell phone

I resisted the urge to bring my own laptop and my backup camera. Such a geek. Tee. ^_^

Solar death ray

2005-06-24T15:46:00.000-07:00

I found this site online, it is quite hilarious. The guy built a giant concentrator mirror to harness the power of 100 suns. Behold as Darth Vader wilts under the power of this fully operational death ray.

http://www.solardeathray.com/

Aw, nuts

2005-06-20T11:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I was over at a friend's cousin's house looking at a '94 Kawasaki Ninja 250R. I took it for a short run around the block, but not for too long because:

The tires were old
I wasn't wearing a helmet
No registration
Pennsylvania license plate
No motorcycle license (haven't received it in the mail yet)
No insurance

Anyway, not that big a deal, since it was a quiet residential neighbourhood. I did a silly thing bringing it up into his steeply sloped driveway. I didn't point it 100% straight and it bumped into the curb. No, the bike didn't crash, and no, nothing fell down. I did however learn two important lessons:

Don't sit with your legs spread
Don't sit with your crotch right up against the tank

Ouch. But no damage done, which is all good. I think I'm going to get some riding pants with crotch protection.

I left a deposit on the machine.

Vanity, thy name is Tao

2005-06-16T21:02:00.000-07:00

I've had my Ontario plates on for the longest time, well past the "legal" limit of 20 days in California. So I am thinking of getting a vanity plate to replace it. Any ideas? You can test to see if a plate will work by following this link to the DMV website. I'll send a nice prize to the person who submits a plate that I actually end up using.

I used to have INT NET as my plate, and I'm intrigued by the possibility of having 8 letters to work with. Unfortunately, THE TAO is taken.

Lazy

2005-06-16T16:31:00.000-07:00

Yeah, that's me. I've always got grand plans for self-improvement and "cool" projects I can embark on, but following through is always such a drag. The following is a list of things I have on the front and back burners:

Progress:

Learning to play guitar - Just trying to re-build my calluses so I can practice for more than 30 minutes without finger pain. Making some progress on "Gimme one reason" by Tracy Chapman, and of course the good ol' "House of the Rising Sun". I will attempt to progress a little before taking some real lessons.
Riding a Motorcycle - Last weekend was a blast, this coming Saturday I will get my permit when I pass the course. One of my co-workers has a cousin who's selling his Kawasaki Ninja, which I will be getting.
Reading more - I finished Proficient Motorcycling this weekend, and on Tuesday I put down Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms. Currently reading The Lady Tasting Tea and The Clash of Civilizations.

No Progress:

Exercise; get bigger/stronger - I haven't been to the gym in a month, this is very sad. However, I am trying to run at least twice a week, and my last weekend's
Consistently break 100 in golf - I haven't played a round of golf since October, and this isn't going to change anytime soon.
Travel - Well, that's TBD. I'll do the Frisco and San Diego thing when time permits.
Photography - I got to get out a bit more, this will go hand-in-hand with the travel. I've got to watch my expenses, but next on my purchase list is a nice tripod and a flash. I have yet to make any prints recently, and I will have to do that and put them up in some nice frames as well.
Art - Music first, then art.
Girls - I guess this is "supposed" to be the central activity around which everything else in my life rotates, but I haven't had much time yet to go out and chase girls either. Now that is sad.

The Getty

2005-06-12T23:23:00.000-07:00

This weekend, I did two things: I visited the world famous Getty center. Photos from the Getty are up on my PBase account. Keep in mind I haven't retouched the photos yet, which makes a big difference. They'll look a lot better after Photoshop, promise.

The second thing I did was taking the first half of my Motorcycle course, which was plenty of fun. In fact it was so fun that I think I'm going to go out and get one after I get my license. More updates to come!

10 things I've never done in my life

2005-06-10T16:46:00.000-07:00

So Karen tags me to list "10 things I've never done in my life."

Therefore, I am obliged to post:

I HAVE NEVER...

Been to Disneyland
Woken up next to someone the next morning and regretted it
Seen a ghost
Won anything in a lottery, raffle, contest etc. This excludes the time we bought lotto tickets with the change left over after lunch and won more tickets (which we lost).
"Experimented" with, well, anything in college
Gotten the "birds and the bees" talk from my parents. Not that I remember, at least.
Read more than 3 pages of James Joyce's Ulysses in a single sitting; I am on page 120.
Broken any bones (knock on wood)
Worn a tuxedo
Voluntarily listened to an entire Pink Floyd song - I have 6 tracks on my iPod.

For my East Coast peeps

2005-06-07T10:04:00.000-07:00

izzle

-izzle (iz'-zl)

A suffix added to the end of the last syllable of a word, originated by Snoop Dogg as a method to make words rhyme.

Usage: –izzle is best used when preceded by a consonant sound.

Ex. 1: Fo' Shizzle / "For Sure"
Ex. 2: Neptizzle / Neptune
Ex. 3: Valentizzle / Valentine
Ex. 4: T to the Chizzle / TC / Tao Chen

Master of my domain

2005-06-06T09:41:00.000-07:00

Hey, I just picked up my first domain name in a while today. I bought thisistao.com - currently I've pointed the domain directly to this blog, but in a couple of months, I hope to have it point to a general personal domain, with a link to here.

Threads

2005-06-05T23:27:00.000-07:00

That's T to the chizzle in the house, throwin' up Westside. Represent, yo?

Freedom

2005-06-04T22:01:00.000-07:00

So I'm finally done the damn exam. 8 hours of pure hell.

The synopsis is as follows:

Morning: whee, this is just like the old exams I practiced on. I hope they like my answers.
Afternoon: Mother&*^*&%!!! I didn't know it was humanly possible to make multiple choice questions this hard!

Those multiple choice questions had layers upon layers of meaning - It was as if I was trying to figure out why Kasparov moved his pawn up a square instead of two. I sincerely hope I get more than 50% in the afternoon - I'm too old to do this again, I think my mental bones would snap if I gave this marathon another try.

Results in August, more to come.

-Tao

Paris Paris

2005-05-31T11:29:00.000-07:00

This has got to be some sort of hoax - I hope!

Paris Hilton reportedly engaged to shipping heir
LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- Ubiquitous socialite Paris Hilton is engaged to marry her boyfriend of five months, Greek shipping heir Paris Latsis, People magazine reported on its Web site on Monday.

OK, let me get this straight, Paris Hilton is going to marry her boyfriend Paris Latsis? Assuming this bizarre betrothal goes the whole nine yards, what would happen if Hilton changed her last name to Latsis? This would mean you would end up with a married couple with the same name!! Imagine the anarchy! What would people call them!?! (Egad!! I have exhausted my entire days' supply of exclamation-points!)

Imagine the scene at the Social Security office:

Paris Hilton: "Hello, I'm here to change my name to Paris Latsis. Here's form 137468991058-A/B"
Social Security Clerk: "One moment..." <typing>
Computer: BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH
Social Security Clerk: "What the..."

Meanwhile, airplanes fall out of the sky as the malfunction propagates through all federal machines.

Bill Gates: "The seventh seal has been broken. The end is nigh!"
Satan: "I thought that was when the Olsen twins turned 18."
Bill Gates: "..."

Or at a party:

Trump: "Hey Paris!"
Paris L: "Hey, how's it going? Meet my new wife, Paris! Paris, Donald Trump."
Trump: "Paris, a pleasure. Paris has told me so much about you! Have you met my wife Melania? Melania, come meet Paris and Paris."
Melania: "Enchante."
Paris H: "Pleased to meet you."
Trump: "Both Paris and Paris were at my hotel last weekend. Paris enjoyed the new spa I set up but joined up with Paris down in the casino later. Paris, I hear your luck is too good, I'm going to have to ban you from the baccarat table!"
Paris H: "Did you mean me or him?"
Trump: "You know, I have no idea."
Melania: "Paris?Paris?Paris?Paris?Paris?Paris?" <head explodes>
Trump: "Dang, Third time this week."

Oh, I can't wait to hear how this one turns out...

Kart Vader

2005-05-29T20:39:00.000-07:00

This is awesome... some guy gets in a 125cc shifter kart and blasts through downtown Quebec City at 160km/h, and evades the cops while he's at it.

www.kartvader.com

Predictably, it's sponsored by goldenpalace.com

Bloggershirt

2005-05-26T15:57:00.000-07:00

Got me a blogger T-shirt today.

I'll post pics soon.

Deep secrets

2005-05-21T12:22:00.000-07:00

PostSecret is an awesome site. Perhaps I shall have the cojones to send in my secret some day.

My Blog Sucks

2005-05-20T22:46:00.000-07:00

... Well, at least Matt Wood says so.

A few weeks ago, my partner QBlog wrote about blogging Rule #1: Don't Suck. Sage advice indeed, but the truth is no matter how hard you try, your blog will suck. It will be unbelievably, mind-numbingly bad. You won't post often enough to keep people coming back, and you'll be mad at yourself. You won't get any comments, and you'll feel like a loser. Then you'll abandon your blog, and the internet will be littered with yet another carcass with six meaningless posts, four of which are apologies for not posting often enough. There are 12,000 new weblogs created every day, and 11,999 of them suck, including yours. So don't even try. Do the internet a favor, and don't clog it up with your "ramblings," "musings," or "random thoughts" in a blog. There are better places for it.

Man, that's pretty unencouraging. I do get the occasional comment from my friends though. As for attracting strangers from across the world wide web to gape in awe at my cognitive brilliance shining through my flowing prose, well I never really expected that. If I wanted to attract people to my site, I could have just come up with something really and unambiguously weird instead. If I wanted to show up on the radar of the blogosphere, it wouldn't be that hard, I would just have to rant about liberals. Loudly.

Anyhoo, I'll go back to my regular posting style - I just thought I'd just share the fact that I suck. :)

Updates

2005-05-20T00:27:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, sorry my updates haven't been very forthcoming lately, but I'm sure you all understand I'm studying for my CFA exam. I actually come up with some pretty good material during the day but I never really get a chance to type it out when it comes down to it.

The exam is coming up on June 4, and there shall be much rejoicing afterwards. I promise.

Krazy Klimate

2005-05-15T17:41:00.000-07:00

So I was in Pomona today, scouting out the location for the CFA exam. It was absolutely amazing the difference in temperatures a few miles inland. When I left my garage, my external thermometer in my car was reading 21 degrees Celsius (about 70 F), and by the time I got to Pomona, 50 kilometers inland, it was reading 33 C! It wasn't just a fluke; by the time I got back the temperature only went up to 23.

Weird, huh?

Confirmed

2005-05-14T15:50:00.000-07:00

I booked tickets yesterday for my visit back home; unfortunately the only flight within my parameters was that awful red-eye. I'll be arriving Friday July 1 at Pearson at 6:05AM and will be leaving at 8PM on Tuesday, July 5.

Cheers, y'all.

Advance notice for a visit

2005-05-13T13:23:00.000-07:00

I'm going to be coming home, folks. Right now it looks like I'll be in town from Friday, July 1 to Tuesday, July 5, but my exact itinerary is still up in the air as I try to get the best rates. The problem is that stupid Air Canada decided to cancel flight 744 on June 30, which would have allowed me to leave the office at 1pm, and pay $460 for the flight. Now my only option for that kind of money is to leave on Thursday, take a connection in Vancouver at 11:30pm PT, and arrive at 6am ET. What a horrible red-eye. And I'm not paying $560 for the same flight the next day. Of course, the other option is to use my miles - the only problem is that I'd have to fly business class and use up 40,000 (vs. the normal 26,000) miles. Not a great option either.

I'll see how my wrangling with online booking works out. Anyway, see y'all later!

Make that thirteen

2005-05-10T09:57:00.000-07:00

Or maybe fourteen. This article has a more recent count:

The latest incident, in which a lorry driver was targeted but not harmed, follows 12 unsolved freeway shootings in the last two months, which have left four dead and four injured.

What kind of American journalist uses "lorry" anway?

Traffic

2005-05-09T15:30:00.000-07:00

Not sure if you've been keeping up with news lately, but LA freeways are turning deadly again. There have been at least seven attacks in the last 10 weeks, four of them fatal, the worst outbreak of apparently random freeway shootings in the Los Angeles area since 1987, when five people were killed.

There's an interesting article from the NY Times written by a journalist having spent some time in the SoCal area, where he rightly noticed that drivers are quite polite and attentive on the freeways-especially as compared with New York drivers:

As a friend from Fullerton puts it, you drive politely, without challenging other drivers even implicitly, because "they're packing." No one honks because no one wants a fight. People use their turn signals to say, as innocently as possible: "Changing lanes now! Not cutting in! No disrespect intended!"

In fact the level of aggression here is about on par with that on Toronto highways. Anyone from a small town would be frightened out of their wits, but having spent some time observing traffic through the streets of Montreal and NYC, I'll have to say it's pretty damn tame here in a metro area with more drivers than the population of some European countries.

It's a funny solution to road rage, in the city with the highest percentage of single driver commuters in the world and the most extensive freeway system anywhere. The only thing I can think of as a parallel is the Air Marshal program; you seed just a random number of planes with men with guns, and the number of hijackings dramatically goes down.

Not that I'm advocating anyone to go out and buy a gun, but I for one won't be flipping off anyone who cuts me off on an on-ramp.

The Fed

2005-05-04T09:47:00.000-07:00

Today I treat you with a comic:

Oldie but a goodie. By the way, my cash came out sparkling clean! Just an FYI, jeans pocket = delicates bag.

Filthy lucre

2005-05-02T00:21:00.000-07:00

Have you ever received dirty money? Not the kind that is obtained through smuggling terrorists across customs or selling crack in the schoolyard, but the really filthy nasty kind that looks as if a street person had used it as a handkerchief? I was at a small taco shop late last week for lunch when I was handed two tattered, slightly moist singles as part of my change. This money was some of the most filthy paper I've ever encountered, and has actually imparted a rotten sort of odor to my wallet over the course of this weekend. Ironically enough, the two fish tacos which I ate for lunch that day rendered no ill effects on my stomach later that evening. Luck of the draw, I guess.

One alternative would be to actually spend the damn things, but that's just the easy way out - as any economics major will tell you, due to fractional reserve banking, the dirty cash actually multiplies like a virus through the system, spawing multiple offspring for each one reintroduced into the money supply. Well today, I've decided that I shall launder my currency with the next load. I am trying to decide whether I should dump it in with my whites, which would achieve the benefit of a touch of Chlorox, or stuff it into the pocket of my jeans which would send it in with the colors on the warm/cool cycle.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

1111

2005-04-29T10:09:00.000-07:00

That's the number of emails I've gotten to me since I started my job here on the west coast. No, let me clarify: I have a rule in Outlook that directs e-mails sent only directly to me to a folder named "To me." The truth is, if I count emails not sent to me directly (i.e. on a distribution list or on a cc), the number jumps to over 9000. The blame in that case rests solely on the verbose folks in the London office. So, 1111 emails - which turned to 1119 by the time I got around to writing this post - turns out to be about 80 a week, which isn't too bad, considering some other people I know. Then again, figuring that the first two months here I was actually just "training" and not getting real emails from clients, the number jumps considerably. I've heard horror stories of people who get over 100 emails in a single day, and to those I must inquire: how do you get any work done at all? Just reading and replying would take me 8 hours a day.

So, how many e-mails do you get a week?

Darth side of the force

2005-04-24T22:03:00.000-07:00

Oh my, even Lord Vader's got his own blog now.

I left him a comment:

Tao said...

Dear Lord Vader,

if you plan to visit Hoth, I strongly suggest long underwear, and upgrading the heating coils in your cybernetic prosthetics. I grew up in Canada, and let me tell you, it's no fun being forced to hole up in a disemboweled Tauntaun due to the cold.

thisistao.blogspot.com

25.4.05

Darth Vader said...

Dear Tao,

Thanks for the tip. As a point of fact, our new heavy weather outerwear is the bomb, and I feel quite snug.

Sincerely,

D. Vader

25.4.05

Linx

2005-04-23T21:09:00.000-07:00

I met this guy at the Schweser seminar this weekend, and checking out his website, I realized that I had to get some links going...

Must research blogrolling.

Too Cool.

2005-04-19T19:39:00.000-07:00

There's this place down the street from me called Black Market, it's a trendy Westside retail clothing shop full of Japanese-influenced fashion, and a bunch of hard-to-find brands. Every now and then they do an art show, where they showcase a local artist. I've been to one, and it's very very cool; a live DJ is spinning, refreshments are served (i.e. Red Bull & Vodka), and art is shown.

One of the hot new artists that is shown 'round here is Audrey Kawasaki - just absolutely awesome. I may make her show this Friday if I'm not too bummed out after my first day of Schweser Intensive Review.

I think I may buy some art, if I can afford it.

Human Food

2005-04-17T15:14:00.000-07:00

I'm not a big fan of the meal they call breakfast. Mind you, I agree that it is the most important meal of the day, and when I do get my first meal in early, I find myself with a lot more energy than otherwise. Over the last few years, I've been experimenting with different formulae for brekkie, ranging from instant oatmeal, to a muffin, to Mr. Christie's cookies. I think I've settled on a real alternative to eating healthy.

Enter the energy bar. I'm still in the process of finding one without the yucky protein & vitamin aftertaste, but it's a good way to stuff in 200 calories to get me through the morning. And a lot more healthy than Double Chocolate Chunk cookies.

When shopping for said energy bars, I've noticed that the process is amazingly similar to buying food for my dog. You flip the back, check out the nutrition info panel, and then read through the ingredients list for things that don't belong in anything edible. If people were pets, you'd find Balance Bars in the human food aisle of the supermarket.

Erm... found.

2005-04-16T22:38:00.000-07:00

Please ignore my previous rant.

The phone was wedged between the cushions of the couch. And who could have committed such a diabolical crime? The only culprit...

The Cat.

Look at 'em beady lil eyes.

Nasssty thieving hobbitses.

Lost and found

2005-04-15T09:54:00.000-07:00

After a full three months in my possession, I think I've lost my cell phone. I feel almost naked without it. To tell you the truth, I'm not really sure where I lost it, not so much as a clue. All I know is that culminating in today, for the last three days I've had an odd feeling that something was missing. My experience is a bit like "phantom limb" sensation that amputees sometimes experience, where they experience sensations from an appendage that is no longer there, except that in my case the missing appendage was my Motorola V220, clipped to my hip.

Retail price is so high for new phones too. They're so heavily subsidized by the wireless companies that it costs almost five times more to buy without the contract - damn the wireless companies and damn the time value of money!

I've calculated, it's going to take at least twenty brown bag lunches to make up for the phone. Doh.